Priority Mail Workgroup Meeting

PRIORITY MAIL WORKGROUP MEETING July 31, 2001

Attendees: Casper Tucci, Ingram Books; George Humphreys, USPS; Ed Roth, Lockheed Martin; Brad Briskey, Brylane; Jim Cochrane, USPS; Paul Pullins, District Photo; Bernie Coley, USPS; Maha Martinez, RR Donnelley; Bill Terry, Spiegel Group; Glenda Franklin, HSN; Clarence Banks, RR Donnelley; Jon Wittnebel, RR Donnelley; Tom Sides, SmartMail; Tom Medlock, USPS

The MTAC Priority Mail workgroup met on July 31st in conjunction with MTAC.

The topics lined out in the first meeting were discussed.

 The Emery Transition – Jim Cochrane reported that all of the Emery transition has been completed, and is in house at this point. The USPS is back using the PMPC’s, and they are doing well on service. It was decided that this issue has gone away, and everyone was satisfied that the concerns that were here are now gone away.

Jim is also confident that service will be better than ever with the FedEx contract in place. He has told management that if they are adding costs to the process anywhere, they must find a cost avoidance somewhere else. Currently limited PETE reports are showing that Priority Mail is showing 91% 2-day delivery and 97% 3-day delivery. Jim is predicting that with the FedEx process, they will be seeing 97% 2-day delivery.

 Priority Drop Ship – There was an issue of not being able to track priority drop ship packages. Jim Cochrane reported that the USPS has added the availability of Delivery Confirmation to this process, and this will make the tracking a possibility. There are currently only 3 customers on line. There are many others that need to add the software to make this possible, but have not done so yet. We will collect data from APMU and workgroup members to give us a good baseline to monitor the improvement this will make. The USPS has scanners in 143 facilities with instructions to empty the bags and scan within 60 minutes.

APMU members can check with their vendors to see when they expect their software to be updated to enable this process.

 Outbound Single Packages – It was noted that the delivery of outgoing single packages dropped over the holidays by a couple of percentage points, but it has picked back up. Also, FedEx will add consistency to this process. Members attending were satisfied that this issue has been resolved, so this will not be addressed again.

 Priority Returns Process – This was determined to be the most critical issue of all. Data from DFS returns show that 10.3% of all returns take over 6 days. Jim Cochrane reported that there was a meeting held with top postal officials, and some notes from that meeting include:

o A quality group has been engaged to look at the standardization of returns. o Pat Donohoe stated that returns are one of the biggest issues and opportunities in the postal service. o The USPS is working on testing equipment to have in-line movement and scanning available. o It appeared that mentality is that returns are not as important as outgoing mail, and there is an effort being put forth to change that thinking.

 Jim Cochrane said that work is being done and the next step is to report back to John Kelley in two weeks and a task force will be created to address their findings.

APMU will be sending out a survey to all members asking for their input on service levels and will compile it all and share the information with the USPS. Please be ready to fill in your form when you receive it and return it quickly to APMU.

The next meeting will be held in conjunction with MTAC in November, however we may have a telecon in September/October prior to that meeting..